I was in the studio at 6:00 AM to prepare my palette. I had to scrape-down the entire surface. Most mornings I take a pause to gather my thoughts before starting to paint, but yesterday I plunged right in. I couldn’t wait to pick up the brush.
Things were going great when I put down the brush to study my work. Blah! Awful. I wasn’t seeing anything. I resolved to continue and pushed on but things eventually bogged-down entirely. Finally, I wiped off the morning’s work. A morning’s work wasted.
I had some coffee and tried to shake it off. Some days are just bad days. When I was younger, I would have shutdown the studio for the rest of the day and looked for something useful to do. I have learned a few tricks over the years and know how to work around problems. So I kept painting as usual.
When I put down the brush at the end of the day, I took a final look before taking the painting off the easel. I was shocked by what I saw. Not bad, actually pretty good. I got a lot done while arguing with myself about the earlier blowup.
The muse has its fun, eh? The muse rules; sometimes I am allowed to see.
The photo shows my palette after a day’s combat.